Discover the enticing gourmet trails of Ireland

Naas Farmers Market has a fantastic range of organic produce, from pies and pickles to cooked food, chocolate and cheese. Its just one of a multitude of markets across Ireland.

Photograph by: Handout photo
, James Fennell, Tourism Ireland

Ask most North Americans about Irish food and they’ll mention potatoes, Irish stew or corned beef and cabbage. But Irish cuisine is actually a lot more exciting and sophisticated today. There’s new energy and innovation in the cuisine of the Emerald Isle. Proximity to coastal waters and rich farmland and a growing number of chefs who know how handle fresh ingredients mean travellers can eat well wherever they go.

“Here in Ireland we are lucky to have some of the best food produce in Europe,” says Zack Gallagher, a Donegal chef and founder of Irish Food Tours, and a food ambassador for Failte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority. “This includes amazing seafood, succulent meats, wonderful cheeses and breads and a superb and vast range of dairy products. This is the type of foods that we eat ourselves at home, and this is what Irish chefs use to create their dishes in our restaurants.”

Ireland takes its food very seriously. Take cheese: Over the last 40 years, the country has seen a revival in farmhouse cheese-making that has made Irish cheese an international bestseller. To date there are 60 registered artisan cheese producers creating 200 distinct cheeses made from sheep, cow and goat’s milk. There’s even an annual Cheese Awards ceremony.

You’re never far from water on the Emerald Isle, whether it’s the ocean or a fresh water lake or river. This means fresh seafood, and salmon, whitefish, cockles, mussels, crab, lobster and oysters are mainstays of the Irish diet.

Ireland also has a special relationship with pork and you’ll find the most delicious sausage, bacon and gammon in every region. Lamb and beef are two other cornerstones of repasts here. The famous Connemara Hill Lamb is fed the grass and heather of the region to produce its distinct flavour. Irish beef production is also primarily a grass-based system, resulting in meat of exceptional quality.

Artisan food producers are using these incredible ingredients to produce unique signature foods that make their way to restaurants. Many chefs are committed to the local food movement, and organic food has a growing presence. According to Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, there are 1,600 registered organic operators in the country.

“Almost every town and village now has its locally-reared cattle, pigs and sheep farmers, cheese makers and vegetable growers,” says Gallagher.

Visiting one of the 150 farmer’s markets provides a wonderful introduction to Ireland’s food. Start off in Cork, Ireland’s second-largest city and considered the food capital of the island. Its English Market is a covered market that has been in business since 1788. Wander through stalls filled with the bounty of County Cork. Visit fishmonger Kay O’Connell, selling 50 varieties of fish and seafood. Be adventurous and try some Cork drisheen, a traditional black pudding made with beef and sheep’s blood poached in milk.

The Limerick Milk Market is the place to discover some magnificent local cheeses, including the famous Cahill’s Irish Whiskey cheese. In Dublin, you’ll have 25 farmer’s markets to choose from. The eclectic Saturday Temple Bar Market is a gathering spot for Dublin’s foodies, where they feast on freshly harvested oysters, homemade breads and vintage cheeses.

Agri-tourism is also booming in Ireland so consider taking a flavour tour. Irish Tourism has created a self-drive gourmet tour ranging from eight to 14 days during which you finish off a day of sightseeing at luxury accommodations sampling the culinary talents of Irish chefs across the South-West Region. Irish Food Tours takes a slightly different approach, with shorter trips to visit artisan food producers, where you can watch the creation of food that you will be eating at a local restaurant.

Food festivals are another entertaining way to munch your way through the country. Expect workshops and exhibits by local cheese makers, bakeries, farmers and other food producers, along with cooking master classes and plenty of taste-testing. Large festivals such as the Taste of Donegal Food Festival, the Westport Food Festival in County Mayo and the Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival are among the main party events of the year.

You may be inspired to learn cooking techniques while on holiday. The Cloughjodran Cookery School in County Tipperary teaches the basics of country baking, while the Ballyknocken Cookery School in County Wicklow specializes in cooking techniques using ingredients from their organic gardens and farm. And then there is the cooking school run by the woman who started the whole Irish food revival, Darina Allen. Considered the Irish Julie Childs, Allen heads up the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, East Cork.

Consider, too, that all this delicious food can be paired with Irish beer and spirits. When you visit Ireland, you’re in for an epicurean adventure that will change your relationship with Irish cuisine forever.